Goodbye 2017, Hello 2018!

2017 has been and gone. It doesn’t seem five minutes since I was typing up my first post of 2017 and now it’s already 2018. I can’t believe it. 2017 has a been a whirlwind of a year with a mixture of good and bad things. So, it’s time to say goodbye 2017, hello 2018!

This is the first time in almost two weeks that I’ve come onto my blog. It’s been nice to have a little ‘break’ from it all. December was a very challenging month for me. From being poorly for the majority of it to working every single day, on top of doing Blogmas, running a home and trying to stay organised for Christmas. It was heptic and I’m not sure how I quite managed that. But hey! I did it.

Goodbye 2017!

You funny ol’ year you. I’m very on the fence about 2017. In some aspects, it’s been amazing and in other parts – just shit. Social media has probably been one of the reasons why I didn’t like 2017 funnily enough. It was getting to the point where you couldn’t actually go on Twitter without seeing at least one argument, 5 indirect tweets and 3 screenshots outing someone. Honestly.

I get that the world isn’t all rainbows and butterflies and not everyone is going to get along. I know that’s not physically possible for every. Single. Person. In blogging to get along but it would be nice if once in a while, people would just think before they type. It’s draining. It’s horrible. This mob mentality that seems to be in the air at the moment is just something else too. I don’t really get it. If you have beef someone, send them a private message, take it elsewhere, not for every single person to see. This is where I think people forget how accessible shit like this is – anyone could literally drag up a tweet from x amount of time ago and use it against you. Whether it’s a potential brand, employer, friends and family. Is it really worth it?

It does get to the point where it’s just exhausting to see too. It can really bring out the worst in people sometimes. Whenever there’s a Twitter spat, you can pretty much figure out who/what/where/when. Of course, not all of Twitter sucks, many people on there are absolutely incredible.

And I know, we’re all guilty of it, of the occasional passive aggressive tweet, the like on a tweet that’s clearly about someone, sending the all too frequently used Kermit and his mug GIF and so much more. Heck, even I’m guilty of doing this from time to time but I want to consciously make the effort to change that in 2018.

Social media is a curse and a blessing.

Amazing things can come from social media too. Like, discovering amazing blogs, sharing many cat videos, meeting incredible people, raising awareness for various things and still so much more. Whilst it can be a shit place to be sometimes, you can really learn stuff on social media too, I feel more educated about certain issues and topics that I may not have been so informed on before and that is largely thanks to social media.

Whilst on the subject of social media – let’s talk a minute about Instagram.

What a bloody joke that platform became in 2017. From bots, to buying likes and followers, to playing the shitty follow and unfollow game and of course, the ridiculous algorithm. The most frustrating thing is, if you didn’t ”make it” with Instagram before those changes, you’re probably never going to ”make it” now. By this, I mean having a decent amount of followers with a great level of interaction. For someone like me, who has under 2k followers – I don’t think I’ll ever make it to 10k. It’s disheartening in a way because you just think what’s the point? We can spend hours creating what we think is ‘out of this world’ content that we’re buzzing about, for it to get less than 150 likes on Instagram.

Now, I know it’s not all about the numbers but you can’t deny how frustrating it is. A platform that was once loved (note the past tense) by pretty much everyone, to be royally screwed over. Let’s just hope in 2018, Instagram see the error of their ways and make some important changes. I’ve gone on a huge social media ramble so I’m going to swiftly end this point and move onto the whole reason of the post…

Of course, 2017 was a huge stepping stone for me too!

Because I got a frickin’ house! As if I haven’t told you all for the billionth time now… It’s literally been a year this month (10th January to be precise) and I can’t quite believe it. The year has just flown by and we’ve already done so much to the house to put our own stamp on it. We’ve been sorting out our 5 year plans for the house and there’s going to be so much happening! 2018 will see us revamp the front bedroom completely and update the back bedroom, we’re also going to look at getting a porch built and redoing both gardens. How much of this will get done is another question entirely but we’re gonna give it a go and see what happens!

I made some amazing friends,

I also met some of the absolute babes too. Some, I’m still to meet up with but I love the friends that I’ve made through blogging because whenever I’m on a debbie downer, I can just head to the whatsapp group chat and know that I will come away in 30 minutes time with the biggest grin on my phone and laughing away. Plus, amongst all the serious life advice chats, there’s so many more conversations going on – from your politics to personal jokes, to chin pics, to the hilarious voice notes to cat memes, all sorts. It’s weird isn’t it, how you can be so close to some people who you’ve never met before or only met a handful of times but you all know each other SO incredibly well and talk every single day. Bloggers can make the best friends.

We didn’t really go on holiday *sobs*

I like to go on holiday every single year with Kayne if possible but in 2017 we just didn’t. We did have a trip booked to Amsterdam but it was around the same time we were going to be moving in so it was a no brainer really – go on holiday or move into our home and use the money for that instead. BUT, I did get to go camping in France which I absolutely loved and would do again. It was such a funny trip, filled with laughter, prosecco, good company and amazing weather. In 2018, we’re hoping to book a city break to Rome (we are both desperate to visit there) and a weeks holiday to somewhere in Greece. Whether we will be able to do both is another question entirely but we’ll see how it goes!

Hello, 2018!

This year, I have a good feeling about. Despite entering the New Year extremely poorly and not being fully over it now as I type this (hence why this bloody post is up waaaay later than I wanted it to be) I want 2018 to be ‘my year’. I know we all probably say that at the start of each year and give up half way through but I really want to try.

My blog, I want to take further and take it more seriously, start pitching to brands and just trying harder. It feels as though I’ve been a ‘floater’ in blogging so far and I just want to do well. I want to change up my photos a little bit, I have a rough idea how I’m going to do it but whether I can execute it or not is another thing. Putting more lifestyle shots into my Instagram and content in general will also be… erm, interesting. We’ll see how it goes!

But, I have big plans for 2018 and I’m going to do my best to stick to them. I’ll probably fall over at a hurdle but ah well, at least I tried!

What are your plans for 2018? Are you glad to see the back of 2017 or did you quite like it? Let me know in the comments below!